Brian Johnson explains why people fail to change: they lack the activation energy required. He uses temperature thresholds—212°F to boil water, 451°F to ignite paper, 2,000°F to forge steel—as metaphors for the intensity needed to transform. General Fenton wrote these numbers on a Notre Dame lacrosse team's whiteboard after a loss, telling them to turn up the heat.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic Plus One. In our last Plus One, we talked about one of Emerson's brilliant friends and the importance of celebrating other people's awesomeness. Yes, I come back to that often. That is one of the most unheralded and most powerful ways to share your love with someone, to celebrate them. Well, at that chess tournament we went to last weekend, I had the chance to spend a little time chatting with Emerson's friend's dad, Who, like Emerson's friend, also happens to be a wonderful, brilliant human being. We were chatting about all the optimizing stuff we chat about here all the time, and he asked me why some people change their lives and others don't. I thought about it for a second, then said that, of course, there are some important behavioral change dynamics that people may not quite understand. Stuff about how to install and delete habits or optimize their sleep or nutrition or whatever and all that. Gaining competence and mastery with the art and science of behavior change, along with some practical wisdom and whatever you want to optimize, is obviously important. But I said that I think the number one reason why most people don't change their lives is that they don't really, really, really want it. Then I told him about activation energy and General Fenton and the wisdom he once shared with the Notre Dame lacrosse team. You can check out a plus one I linked to in this plus one for more. Short story: I told him that if you want to boil water, you need to get the temperature all the way up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Lukewarm water won't do it; neither will 200 degrees. Or 210, or even 211. You need to hit the activation point of 212 degrees so that one thing can turn into another thing and you get that water boiling. Same thing with fire. Want to ignite paper on fire? You need to hit 451 degrees. Nothing less than that will do. Not 400 degrees or 425 or even 450. You must turn up the heat all the way to 451. Then I told him about General Fenton and his little talk to the Notre Dame lacrosse team. They were the defending national champions and they had just lost a game. The general walked in and put a phone number up on their whiteboard: 212-451-2000. He told them that's their new heroic phone number. He told them to turn up the heat, get to 212, get to 451 degrees. Then turn up the heat all the way to 2,000 degrees, what's required to forge a sword. And that's today's plus one. You want to change a certain part of your life? Maybe it's hitting your optimal weight or starting a business or making your existing one work or both or improving an important relationship. Whatever it is, if you've been struggling to make the changes you want to make, check in and see if you've turned up the heat. High enough? My gut is you haven't. Dial it up. Get excited about all the reasons why you want to do whatever it is you want to do. You're not going to pay the price to make the changes you need to make unless you're excited about all you're going to get in return. Get fired up, then whoop it. Check out that +1 and get to work crushing it today.
